COFFEE. 



47 



most part, the most brilliant metallic colours. The Marietta, for 

 instance, is spotted or ocellated all over black and white, like a 

 leopard. They can easily be obtained by putting a bugged branch, 

 cut in convenient lengths, into a bottle, when, after some time, the 

 little wasps will be found flying about inside, having made their 

 escape from the bugs. The mother parasite lays her eggs amongst 

 the bugs ; when hatched, the young larvae find their way easily to the 

 soft under side of the bugs, where they attach themselves like leeches, 

 and, protected and fed by the body of the bug, remain until they 

 reach the perfect state. A bug thus attacked produces, of course, no 

 eggs, and instead of the young bugs, in course of time there escape 

 these little wasps. The shells of the old bugs are frequently found 

 with one or two holes; it is from these that the parasites have 

 escaped. I have seen as many as six larvae (belonging to different 

 species of Hymenoptera) attached to one single bug. These larvae 

 can easily be seen on turning up some old bugs with the point of 

 a penknife; they are little white or yellowish, eyeless and footless 

 maggots, some of which can leap to a considerable distance by 

 doubling themselves up and spasmodically extending themselves 

 again to their full length. 



On examining old, full-grown bugs, the shells are often found filled, 

 not with eggs, but with a white flaky substance, amongst which the 

 above-mentioned mite, Acarus translucens, is seen busy. I have 

 thought that the mite might have been the destroyer of the eggs in 

 these cases, and that the flaky substance was the empty and decom- 

 posing egg-shells, but do not feel certain on this subject. The 

 planter has another friend in the larva of a kind of lady-bird, which 

 feeds upon the bug, viz. that of the Ghilocorus circumdatus (Syn. Ch. 

 nigro-marginatus, N. in Motch. Et.). This larva is of ashy-grey 

 colour, furnished with black spots and rows of black spines. The 

 perfect insect resembles a full-grown bug, being semi-globose, light 

 brown, with black margin round the elytra. There is a variety which 

 is altogether dark brown. The larva skin splits, but is not thrown 

 off when the insect assumes the pupa state. When the imago, or per- 

 fect insect, issues from its double shell, it is white, turns round (head 

 towards tail of skins), and sits in this position upon its former en- 

 velopes for twenty-four hours before it moves off. During this time 

 it gains its proper colouring. It is common at all seasons, but 

 especially from March to September, and in all stages of the meta- 

 morphosis, the larva generally fixing itself to the under side of the 

 leaf when its transformation approaches. 



White or Indian Borer (Xylotrechus quadrupes, Chev.). — This is a 

 longicorn beetle of the tribe of the Chjtidce, or wasp-beetles of 

 England (so called from their resemblance to wasps with regard to 

 their system of coloration). Its ravages amongst the coffee estates 

 of Southern India of late years are too well known to need allusion 

 here, more especially as they have called forth the able works of 

 Colonel Taylor and Dr. Bidie, the latter being commissioned by the 

 Madras Government to investigate and report on the subject officially 

 — an honour offered to myself, but which circumstances prevented me 

 from accepting. I therefore confine my remarks to the doings of 



